HR2796-119

What This Bill Does

The Frederick Douglass Trafficking Victims Prevention and Protection Reauthorization Act updates trafficking-prevention education and survivor services. It renames the HHS grants as Frederick Douglass Human Trafficking Prevention Education Grants, prioritizes local educational agencies in high-intensity child sex trafficking areas or areas with significant child labor trafficking, and gives added priority to schools partnering with trafficking-prevention nonprofits, law enforcement, and technology or social media companies. Grantees must engage survivors and government partners, train trainers, guardians, K-12 students, teachers, and school personnel in age-appropriate and trauma-informed ways, and create scalable public models to address grooming, child sexual abuse materials, and technology-facilitated trafficking. The bill also permits HHS to run a survivor employment and education program for up to five cumulative years of services, including basic education, job training, life skills, record expungement help, college or technical-school assistance, case management, and mental health funding help. It authorizes $30.755 million annually for FY2025 through FY2029 for specified trafficking purposes, including $5 million annually for the National Human Trafficking Hotline and related cybersecurity and public education, and $35 million annually for Office of Victims of Crime housing assistance grants.

Who Benefits and How

Children in high-trafficking-risk school districts benefit because grant priority is aimed at child sex trafficking and child labor trafficking areas. Homeless youth benefit because HHS must include them when identifying at-risk students for reporting and targeting. Human trafficking survivors benefit from employment, education, life-skills, case-management, expungement, scholarship, and mental-health support. Anti-trafficking nonprofits benefit from priority partnerships with schools, law enforcement, and technology or social media companies.

Who Bears the Burden and How

The Department of Health and Human Services must administer renamed education grants, survivor-service cooperative agreements, annual reporting, and public model distribution. Local educational agencies receiving grants must train school personnel and students, run trauma-informed programs, and report outcome data. Technology or social media company partners may face expectations to help training efforts against online grooming and trafficking transmission. Federal taxpayers bear reauthorized appropriations for prevention grants, the hotline, cybersecurity campaigns, and victim housing assistance.

Key Provisions

• Renames HHS trafficking-recognition grants as Frederick Douglass Human Trafficking Prevention Education Grants.
• Prioritizes local educational agencies in high-intensity child sex trafficking or significant child labor trafficking areas.
• Creates a survivor employment and education program with up to five cumulative years of services.
• Authorizes $30.755 million annually for FY2025 through FY2029, including $5 million annually for the National Human Trafficking Hotline and related campaigns.
• Authorizes $35 million annually for FY2025 through FY2029 for Office of Victims of Crime housing assistance grants.